Kano Approves N12.4m to Check Desertification

Kano State Government has approved N12.4 million to produce two million assorted seedlings as part of efforts to check desertification.
The state Commissioner of Information, Malam Mohammed Garba made the disclosure while briefing newsmen in Kano on the outcome of the state Executive Council Meeting.
He explained that the seedlings would be distributed free to farmers and other members of the public.
“The state executive council has on Jan. 31 approved the money to enable the Ministry of Environment produce two million seedlings for distribution to people free to enable them plant the seedlings to check desertification.”
According to him, the council also approved the release of N185.4 million for the construction of access road in Tokarawa industrial area, and N8.6 million for the rehabilitation of Tukur Road in Kano metropolis.
The commissioner added that N65.2 million was approved for the reconstruction of a collapsed bridge along Jalabi-Kuluwa-Gwanare road in Bunkure Local Government area of the state.
“The state government has also provided the sum of N31.9 million to the Ministry of Works for the construction of culvert at Darmanawa behind Hassan Gwarzo College,” Garba said.

Before now, the Kano State Government had planted 120 kms of trees along the 57 major roads in the city to curb desertification.
In 2014, Alhaji Abdullahi Abbas, the then state Commissioner for Environment, had at a ceremony to mark the 2014 World Environment Day noted the good development as good to check desertification.
Abbas said that this was in addition to the 50 kms of shelterbelt in seven locations across the state.
“The ecological challenges in Kano are seen in form of progressive desertification, loss of biodiversity, massive felling of trees, loss of grazing land as well as escalation of poverty and pervasive rural underemployment.’’
Abbas, who was represented by Alhaji Mohammad Badawi, the Permanent Secretary, Kano State Ministry of Environment, stressed the need for more community participation to control the effects of climate change.
He added that the government would aggressively pursue public education on ownership of various remediation projects.

In Northern Nigeria, notably Kano, rural dwellers in fragile semi-arid lands are threatened by poverty and the degradation of the natural resources on which they depend on for their immediate livelihoods. The local people has been pushed by the nature of rapid population growth and the need for more income to over exploit fragile, and marginal grass land through overgrazing and cutting down of trees for fuelwood and other domestic activities which result in desertification.
2. Common Pool Resources (CPR) and desertification
The term “common pool resources” refers to resources “where excluding potential appropriators or limiting appropriation rights of existing users is nontrivial (but not necessary impossible) and the yield of the resources system is subtractable” (Ostrom et.al, 1994,4) as cited in (Wandel, 2004). Common pool resources are the natural or biological resources communally own and managed by the community members respectively. In a situation where by there is no effective law enforcement body that regulate the use of CPRs then it would lead to over-exploitation.
The Garrett Hardin’s theory of ‘ The tragedy of the commons’ has attracted the attention of environmentalists, economics and policy makers in the area of natural resources management. Environmental economist and policy makers always, in their usage refer the phrase ‘the tragedy of the common’ as a situation of failure in management of natural resources. Hardin argue that if natural resources are managed as common property then there is tendency of mismanagement of the natural resources because the rational behaviour of an individual may likely become irrationalities to other members of the communities. Ozden, (2008) lamented that, “The relatively low priority given to environmental protection often leads to poor land management decisions. The over use of land may result from specific economic conditions or inappropriate land laws or customs. In many cases unregulated access to land resources may lead some individuals to maximize their own gain by over exploiting the land at the expense of the community as whole”